- Vinyl Sessions and Charm presents A Tribute to Chris Simpson and Magna Carta
- We feature stories and a Q&A with Chris and spin the original Seasons album on a rare, fully restored & age related audio menue from Sony. Plus a few bonus tracks!
- The fun starts at 7.30pm, our usual raffle and video/slide show from Jim Dobbs
It's his first public appearance in Britain since 2020.
He retired from live performances after his last show in October 2022 in Holland.
Part of the event will be me conducting a Q&A about his life and music.
Born in Harrogate in 1942, Chris Simpson was brought up in the rural hills above Birstwith and went to Harrogate Grammar School.
After forming Magna Carta in London in the late 1960s in the middle of the British folk rock boom, he went on to become of the greatest songwriters this island has ever produced.
Magna Carta sold nine million albums and received six gold discs and three silver discs for much-loved acoustic rock albums on the legendary Vertigo label such as Seasons, Songs From Wasties Orchard, Lord of the Ages and, in more recent years, The Fields of Eden.
The band famously sold out the Royal Albert Hall in 1971 for a performance of their classic Seasons with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra arranged by jazz great Johnny Dankworth.
Writer of more than 200 extraordinary songs, varying from lovely pastoral pop to prog rock epics, stirring ballads to laidback blues, Chris Simpson has performed in 78 different countries.At their peak, Magna Carta worked in the studio with the cream of the era's musicians and producers, including Tony Visconti, Gus Dudgeon, Rick Wakeman and Danny Thompson.
Over the course of more than 50 years with his ever-changing band Magna Carta, whose past members have included Tom Hoy, Will Jackson, Pick Withers of Dire Straits, Davey Johnstone of Elton John fame and Ken Nichol of Steeleye Span, he has sacrificed everything in the cause of creativity and career. Chris's incredible life story is rich with anecdotes from memorable encounters with the likes of David Bowie, John Lennon, Marc Bolan, Princess Margaret, Scotty Moore, Elizabath Taylor and on one unlikely occasion, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, all of which will appear in a forthcoming biography written by Graham Chalmers.
The fun starts at 7.30pm, our usual raffle and video/slide show from Jim Dobbs